What Time Allows Us
by Saria118
Summary: In the years following the finale, Jack has resigned himself to the daze of everyday life when a surprising visit brings him even more surprising news. (semi AU Oneshot)


A/N: I own nothing just the idea. I had a lot of feelings and thoughts after the finale and needed to get them out. Hope you enjoy, may make more with this concept if there is demand for it

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He wasn't sure how much time had passed since that day. Time meant so little now, but when he looked in the mirror, there were signs of change. Fine wrinkles now appeared where there was once only smooth skin, bits of grey poking out of his jet black hair. Now that he was back in the past, or rather the present, it seemed he was able to age once more. Still, Jack hardly noticed. The days, they seemed to mesh together for him. It worried his parents; but after fifty years of constant fighting, this peace was nice. Though, he could not deny, it would be much more enjoyable if she were here.

"Son…" His mother started hesitantly over her tea, rubbing the smooth stone in a worried manner. "We know what you went through was difficult but…..you just seem…" Jack watched her from over his cup, confused. He'd never seen her so concerned, it was odd.

His father interrupted. "Listless, without drive or purpose. I know this is partially our doing. We raise you to defeat Aku, but little else. We are just worried that you are…"

Jack raised a hand to silence his father, gently placing his own cup down.

"I am sorry that my behavior has worried you both. But you have no need to fear, I am just enjoying the serenity. It would do her a disservice for me to loose myself in grief." Yes, he knew this to be true. But some days he could not help but lose himself in the memories of her, no matter how short their time together was. He would not lose himself again. His parents gave him small smiles before glancing at each other, then back to him.

"Well then maybe you'd- uh- be open to-" His father stuttered awkwardly. Jack gave him a confused look. "A meeting for an arranged…."

Before the emperor could utter another word a loud boisterous noise came from the town's square through the ope window. A noise Jack couldn't help but feel was familiar, but no it could not be. Still he rushed out, without a word, towards the square. The noises becoming more understandable the closer he got.

"Oi you see my buddy, Jack?" He heard, that name had not been uttered in so long. "Hey I'm talking to you! Have you seen Jack?" That grating voice. Jack never thought he'd be so happy to hear it again. His feet seemed to move faster and faster with each stride.

"Daaaaaadddddd, you can't keep yelling at people like that." It was strange how nostalgic the scene before him made him feel. The rowdy Scotsman, still a ghost, the man would never be at rest, with his daughter arguing in the middle of the town square surrounded by confused and scared villagers. Acting as though they were the only people there.

"Prince!" One of the villagers shouted.

"You have to help us! These people are looking for someone named Jack. They will not leave." Another cried having come up to him, the Emperor and Empress following a ways behind.

"JACK BOYO!" The spirit shouted floating up and trying to hug the man, his arms passing right through him. "Haha right I keep forgetting that, Flora dear help yer daddy and hug Jack fer me."

With an exasperated sigh the woman approached the far smaller man. "Sorry about this." She lifted Jack up in a tight, almost painful embrace. "I know it's a little weird…" She said putting him down.

"No, no. I understand. You father is very…." He stopped thinking for a moment before saying "Adamant."

The pair laughed as the specter grumbled shouting "SHUT IT!" This too, strangely enough, he missed.

"Son who are these people?" The Empress asked cautiously a worried expression on her face, and a flush on her cheeks at Flora's manner of dress.

"And why are they calling you Jack?" Asked the Emperor, seemingly more confused by the talking ghost.

"Well that's his name." The Scotsman defended..

"Well yes in a manner of speaking." Jack corrected. The spirit frowned.

"WHAT?! Either it is or it isn't"

"Well it both is and isn't"

"IT ACK it can't be both!"

"Well you see when I was sent to the future…"

"You mean to tell me, I didn't even know my best buddies real name!?"

Everyone watched on as the pair argued over a name. Well, the Scotsman argued. Jack calmly explained himself, only increasing the other man's ire. Jack missed this too, people in this time never spoke in such informal manner. But in seeing his parents concern Jack ended the argument. "Perhaps we should speak somewhere more... private?" It took a little convincing but eventually the spirit conceded.

"Wow, such a lovely home." Flora commented never before seeing such architecture.

The Empress smiled at the comment. "Your- um homes are not like this?"

The large girl gently shook her head. "No, ours are made of stone." If the outside excited her, the inside made her awestruck. Everything looked so delicate, she was almost afraid to step inside.

"You raised such a sweet girl." The Empress praised the Scotsman.

The spirit swelled with great pride at the comment. "She's me pride and joy." He sniffed wiping an ethereal tear away. "Well her and my forty others. But Flora's the eldest and always took the best care of her daddy. Ahhhh she's almost as gentle and sweet as my dear departed bonnie lass." Jack nearly dropped the tea a servant kindly brought them at the memory of the man's …sweet and …delicate wife. "You know I was hoping yer son there would marry one of em." He announced, unabashedly.

His daughter flushed, "DDAAADDD!" deeply embarrassed.

"Well I was. I ain't no liar, and if he was going to marry anyone's daughter it shoulda been mine not…" The man had enough decency to catch the look Jack gave, but did not pry. "Well uh anyway…you must be wondering why and how we're here huh laddie?" He asked a tad more reserved. Jack nodded, curious despite the joy of seeing an old friend. "Well see some of them science-y types said something about converging timelines and alternate planes of whatnot to avoid para….something or other.."

"Paradoxes dad."

"Right right, that. Basically you got this uh timeline here where you kill Aku before he ruled the world and ours where that girl of yours did it." The Scotsman was interrupted by the sound of shattering stone. Everyone's eyes turned to Jack as he stared at the broken teacup lying in a puddle of tea.

"Ashi…..is alive?" He managed to get out, attempting to mask his face. He felt joy, confusion, and sorrow all at once and somehow managing to fail at hiding them all. While his parents looked on in concern and uncertainty, the Scotsman and his daughter nodded.

"Aye, that she is." He replied.

"After you went back to the past, she came back with yer sword, she sliced and diced until he was nothing!" Flora announced excitedly swinging an imaginary sword as she retold the memory, deeply ingrained in her mind. Jack could almost picture it, his sword had vanished after the final fight he'd always just assumed since the deed was done it was no longer needed but…. "But well we can't really say Aku is gone." She continued shyly sitting back down. "I mean Ashi absorbed him into herself. So I guess you could say she's Aku now…." Jack's eyes widened at the statement, scared for what had become of her.

"BUT but! She's using that power for good. She's been helping the lot of us fight back those degenerates Aku allowed into the world and taking back all the evil he let seep out." The Scotsman clarified for the worried man. "Folks taken to calling her Empress." He laughed. "She don' like that much though." Flora joined her father in laughter.

Jack smiled to himself, picturing her alive and well in this other world. How many times did he picture that? Far more than he cared to admit he supposed but then… "Why- how are you both here? I thought all of the time portals…"

The Scotsman nodded with a smirk. "They were but you remember those salamander monks?" Jack nodded recalling how he himself destroyed that portal. "Well that one came back and Flora and I jumped through to get you." He announced, proud of himself.

"See the other planets that Aku had dealings with have been invadin' cause... well he's not there to frighten them anymore. Don' even get me started on the ones who won' leave. And not everyone trusts Ashi. They think she's another Aku. Things are a bit crazy right now." Flora explained further. Discourse had been a natural state in the future. The world had been managed by a singular being of power and without that being to fear, the discourse had run rampant. "Dad and I figured if you came back, you could help bring people together. So we looked for a way to find you." Their plan made some sense, but Jack could not help but wonder….

"Pardon me." The Emperor spoke up. "But how exactly did you plan to return." A look of shock washed over the pair's faces. "These... time portals you speak of, would you not need one to go back?" For a moment the Emperor grew concerned. "Did you not…."

"DAD! You said you had it all figured out!" Flora shouted across the table.  
"I figured it'd sort itself out! Don't you talk back to your father!"

"I can't believe you…"

Ducking under the arguing pair the Empress whispered to her son. "They are quite…lively, aren't they?" She smiled, despite her discomfort.

"Yes," Jack replied, "but very good people at heart." He smiled, his parents looked to each other, uneasy. One question still plagued Jack's mind however.

"Why did you use the portal at the spring?" He asked, speaking over their shouting. They stopped arguing abruptly. "Could Ashi not simply make one for you?" She had done so for him and with what they said she was even more powerful than she had been back then.

A silence drew over the two, disquiet settled over the room as the Scotsman and his daughter searched for the right words. Worry washed over Jack, was Ashi perhaps in danger?

Flora took a deep breath, "You see Jack- Ash..i she didn't…"

The Scotsman quickly shushed his daughter. "Nah nah I'll handle this dear. Look, Jack- this was all our idea. See laddie, uh um well she…"

"Refuses to allow the Samurai to come to the future." The voice cut through Jack like a knife. He never dreamt he'd hear it again and yet it sounded wrong somehow.

Without a doubt it was hers, his Parent's faces mirrored his own shock and disbelief. A small tear in reality appeared behind the Scotsman, a rippling of white and black that widened until a portal opened, A room visible beyond it, an unfamiliar form standing with their back to them.

"Ashi…." Jack whispered like a prayer.

"I told you two to leave it be." Her once warm voice sounded cold and distant, Jack wondered just what had happened since he last saw her. "You two may return, but the Samurai stays in the past." She did not wish to see him, Jack wasn't sure what crushed his heart more the memory of her disappearing or the knowledge she did not wish to see him.

"But we just thought this would…." Flora started trying to explain their actions.

"I SAID, NO!" She shouted from the void, Her fist lashing out to catch on something out of view. Her shoulders shook in an effort to calm herself, "Come back now your daughters and sisters are worried…." she spoke softer.

"Ashi." Jack called out, he swore her shoulders stiffened under what he could only assume was a large cloak. "Why won't you look at me?" He asked staring at her back. She seemed to collect herself for a moment bringing her arms to hold herself steady. "Why will you not speak to me?"

"The Clans girls are worried. They can't focus on their duties." She said calmly, refusing to acknowledge Jack's question. "You must return, now."

"I WILL NOT LET THEM!" Jack shouted, catching the occupants of the room by surprise. He stood, walking up to the portal. "Not until you tell me why you refuse to look at me." He held firm, refusing to blink or move, he wanted to hear her voice, wanted to see her face outside of his memories, outside of his dreams. She was so close and yet so very far.

A stillness washed over the room, and it felt as though they were the only ones there. Ashi did not speak for a long moment, when she did her voice quivered. "Because I'm afraid…." She confessed softly, Jack's heart ached.

"Why?" He asked, his pain leaking into his voice. He only wanted to see the face of the woman he loved again. Why was she so afraid?

"I'm afraid I'm not strong enough. I will act selfishly." Her voice wavered as though she were fighting tears. "I wish the version of me I left with you survived, I hoped against hope that it could have lasted…" He heard her force back tears. His hand seemed to act on its own, reaching out to touch her shoulder but unable to. He wanted to comfort her. Hold her. He understood what Ashi meant. Seeing was not enough was it? He desperately wanted her back. "I can't take you from the home you longed for, for so long. I can't throw you back into a war when you've only just found peace. No matter how much I want you here, I refuse to make you suffer anymore."

"What do you mean Ashi?" He was suffering now. Just a little more, he just wanted to hear her voice for just a little longer.

"Our scientists say…." She took a deep breath forcing back her sorrow. "If you jump forward in time again, you will exist outside of time. You will not age, cursed to live endlessly in this world. Never knowing peace…..I can't condemn you to that," He remembered the endless days and nights, the longing for change... for an end. "Jack." She said his name like a prayer. He was undone. "This is my path not yours."

"And this is my choice not yours." He replied softly.  
"Even if the war ends I may not send you back…."

"This is my war as much as yours." He argued. "You can't expect me to not fight for those who fought for me." She couldn't expect him to leave her now that he'd found her again.

"You will likely outlive them all, you may even outlive me, and I'll leave you once more with nothing more than fading memories."

"Maybe I want more memories to hold onto, there are so few good ones to recall."

The conversation drifted into silence once more. Ashi tightened her grip on herself. "Please Jack you don't know what you're asking of me." She seemed to calm herself, that cold edge returning to her voice as she began walking away. "The portal will close soon, Flora bring your father through. We have work to do." Jack watched her until she was out of sight.

"Well…" The Scotsman started, "That wasn't a no." He chuckled nervously. "I'd say it's your choice now laddie." The Scotsman drifted through the portal, grinning back at Jack, his daughter following silently in his wake. Jack stood staring after them through the portal.

In the end she didn't even let him see her. He thought of those he left behind in that future, the chaos it must be in, the weight on Ashi's shoulders. And yet he could not act as though leaving did not frighten him as well. He would be leaving behind all that he had worked so hard to come back to. His parents would be alone again, and this time he might not ever come back. He would live for eternity, eventually falling back into a monotonous existence.

His mother silently took her son's left hand, "We know what you are thinking."

"Mother-" Jack began, trailing off as his father took his right hand.

"You would not be the son we raised if you were not desiring to help those who helped you."

"Father"

"We will miss you…." His mother began to cry quietly, a wavering smile on her face.  
"But maybe you won't give us a chance to." He father forced a laugh through tears. The portal began slowly shrinking.  
"At least this time we can properly say goodbye." Jack stepped through the closing portal, his hands slipping out of his parent's.

"I love you both so much." He called back before it could shut completely, the magic taking its effect.

"Now I want you to help your sister in quadrant….." Ashi was spoke.

"JACK LADDIE!" The Scotsman called out. Slowly Jack got to his feet. "AH KNEW YOU COULDN'T STAY AWAY FROM THE FIGHT MY BOY!" Jack smiled at his friend and in the background he saw the slightest glimmer of Ashi's face, before she turned back to Flora.

"You are needed in quadrant 45 Scotsman, to inspire your daughters against…." She started that same cold tone as before.

"Ah know Ah know calm yer britches lassie, we'll be on our way. Jack! You'd better be joining me for a few more scraps before the end of this war!" His laugh echoed through the white room, it looked familiar and different all at once. Soon only Jack, Ashi and silence remained.

He waited, unsure of what to say, she always made him flounder. She still refused to face him. It wasn't helping matters. "I ….." He started softly before stepping forward and increasing his volume. "I have missed you, greatly."

She almost turned, and then hesitated. "I might not appear as you remember." She said turning her head enough to see her profile but not enough to see her face past her hair, it was longer than he remembered.

"I may not look as you remember either." He confessed. Time had taken its tolls on him, and in the years of peace he'd allowed himself a more relaxed appearance. He kept his top knot loose so his hair fell to frame his face. He felt he had changed so often he must have lived more lives than most. His Gi hung loose on his body now it made him appear as though he did not belong even in his own time, tied now by a black belt. To show his mourning.

"I have changed over time as well." She responded. Turning her body slightly towards him, before she stopped herself again. He could see now that what he thought was a cloak was in truth a broad shoulder jacket that came to tatters as it moved across the floor, open enough to see a black body suit underneath with high spiked heels.

Jack waited for her to move. Not wanting to push Ashi more than he had already. Silence hung in the room until her heels clicked along the floor. With each step Jacks heartbeat sped up until she stood before him.

Despite the lack of any definite aging, She somehow appeared older, wiser beyond her years. Her lips were stained a deep, dark red. In the right light, or lack thereof, they appeared almost black. Her eye shadow matched. As she opened her eyes, they shone a bright almost eerie green. The same green of Aku's skin.

"The power I took from him," She explained. "Did not leave me unchanged." And she did not lie Jack now understood what Flora had meant when she said Ashi took Aku's place. "I must fight it everyday. Part of him is still here. I had to seal him within me." She brought her black covered hand up over her heart. "I constantly stave off the thoughts he torments me with, the unspeakable atrocities he….." Ash breathed deep and clenched her chest tight. "There may come a day when I can't-" She choked on her confession. As though she was telling him her deepest secret. Which it very much may have been.

"Ashi…" His hand rose to cover hers, part of him still thought this was all some cruel dream. But she was solid, real and warm. Their eyes met and her newly green ones were bright with tears, they made him think of the forests she so loved, not Aku.

"Jack…" She sighed, taking his hand in hers and for a brief moment simply enjoying the feeling of it there. "You must promise me something... if you are to stay in this time." There was a seriousness to her words. Jack nodded, following her as she led him through the room.

They soon stood by the room's grand doors and Jack was shocked to see his sword once more. Though perhaps in this scenario it was more her sword. "I keep it here, so it's easy to access. I also have several pure hearted warriors within this former castle of Aku." That explained why it looked so familiar.

"But why?" He asked still wondering if he had the right to hold the sword once more.

"Should the day arrive where I am controlled by this power I possess...It will be easier to kill me." She spoke as though it were nothing. A simple fact and nothing more. "I need you to promise me Jack, vow on your honor that should this happen you won't impede what needs to be done." Her eyes told him as she stared him down 'You allowed that to happen once'. Her hands picked up the sword with care as though it were the most delicate object in the world. And to her it was. "If you can't promise me that then I will send you back…..no matter how much I don't want to."

Slowly Jack got to his knees before her, before a woman he both did and did not know, and held out his hands to recieve the blade. "I vow on my honor and my family, that should you no longer find yourself in control, that you are no longer acting as yourself that I will strike you down swiftly, sure and true, so that you may never harm those you wish to protect." Though Jack could not see it but Ashi's eyes and heart swelled at his vow and carefully she placed the sword back into his hands.

"Then you may stay here," She said, warmth flooding her voice as it did in his memories. "For as long as you wish." Or as long as they had. Which was never enough. Never. Something Ashi was all too aware of as she flung her arms around his neck nearly forcing him to the ground as she embraced him tightly. Every instinct she'd been fighting from the moment he came through the portal, one she herself could not walk through, falling away. She felt as though she hadn't enough hands but settled for the two that threaded threw his silky hair, the other pulling him as close to her as she could.

Although Jack wished he could respond to her passion, her embrace made such action difficult. Instead he simply allowed himself be lost in her touch, her smell, her warmth, Gods above he missed her so much. Soon her lips fell upon his gentle and harsh all once but sweet all the same. The pair thought they might die of happiness there and then. The lovers separated by time itself.

Reluctantly Ashi pulled back when she found Jack struggling for air, a light headedness she too shared. With a bashful smiled she pulled back and got to her feet. "I've missed you greatly as well."

Slowly he rose up coming out of the daze she left him in, placing the sword back on his waist. Feeling whole for the first time in years. Like a piece of himself had been missing. "So what now?" It was almost funny their roles had reversed in this new yet old world he found himself back in.

"Oh well…I normally just monitor things from here." She answered walking swiftly into the center of the room. Ashi made a few strange gestures as she sat almost childishly on the floor. The room filled with images of everywhere Jack could think of and some places he'd never seen before. "I send reinforcements where needed and command retreats when things look dire. But for the most part….." She swiped her hand and they disappeared, patting her hand on the floor beside her to sit. "I just wait."

"You wait?" He asked seating himself next to her. She smiled and nodded. "But would you not be more useful out there?"

"At first I was always on the front lines... or rather I was the front lines." Her voice grew distant as hugged her knees to her chest, recalling a time so far and yet so close in her mind. "But over time I found it….taxing. Not only my body but my mind as well." She flicked her hand back and forth. The limb changing from human to something monstrous. "I'd loose myself in the heat of battle, it frightened the people who followed me and I don't want to do that. So I save myself for the fights that are too dangerous or difficult. A last resort sort of thing, I guess."

Jack watched her carefully as she spoke. All this time she'd been fighting and struggling, while he'd been enjoying a time of peace for the first time in a long while. He wished he could have made it easier for her. Wished he could have helped take that pain away. All the while Ashi had wished for Jack to be exactly as he was, safe, content and at rest.

"Was I happy there?" She asked. It took Jack a moment to understand what she meant.

"Yes, you were." He smiled recalling the short time they had together in his time.

"Did I fit in?"

"Oh yes very much so. Mother adored you."

"She did?"

"Yes, she said you were like the daughter she never had."

"And the mother I never had…"

"Father found you very favorable as well, you greatly impressed him."

"It sounds like I enjoyed myself there."

"Yes. We were nearly married….."

Jack did not speak or move, losing himself in that day. He often wondered if it would have been better or worse had they been able to finish the ceremony. Suddenly he felt a weight on his shoulder and found Ashi's head resting there. "You know we're sort of married now." He raised a brow to her statement and she smiled, warm and wonderful. It was almost as though nothing had changed. Almost. "You just vowed to stay with me until one of us dies, isn't that what a marriage is?" Jack found himself smiling despite himself.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. I suppose it is." He imagined a similar moment he'd shared in the past under a cherry blossom tree with her. The smell in the air was different, but it still felt the same. If this was a dream he silently prayed to never wake. "So just how do you pass the time while you wait?"

"Oh!" She sat up, thinking. "Well I play with some of my more benign abilities." She outstretched her arm to retrieve Jack an apple from the other end of the room. "Like Shapeshifting, it can be fun."

"Yes I can see." He laughed, taking the fruit and placing it down.

"I'll look over the monitors just to watch people. My favorite is an orphanage we all made. The children always look so happy." She smiled softly recalling how they played the other day, how she pictured herself and her sisters in their shoes. Had they only the chance. "It's night where they are now." She explained as to why she could not show Jack now. The list went on and on each activity as simple but joyous as the last, and Jack listened to each with rampant attention wanting to soak in all she had become. "Oh! and I read a bit, mostly these old books the Scotsman daughter Freya finds."

"Really what are they about?" Jack thought it a simple question, but Ashi's face seemed to freeze at the question. "Ashi?" Nervously she laughed and shifted her arm once more to grab a book from under what used to be Aku's throne.

"They're- um... very silly things." She blushed bringing the book up to cover her face. "Just something simple... to pass the time!" Jack inspected it, it seemed flimsy the cover cracked, edges tattered and yellowed but he could still see the image and writing on the front.

"The Pirate King's Secret Cargo?" A strange title to say the least and the image as well. The Pirate in question looked nothing like those he'd encountered and he appear to be holding a woman who fainted from a far too tight corset.

"Yes um it's about a Pirate who mistakenly takes a banker's daughter on his ship. He has to keep her there, but she eventually finds she likes being a pirate and hmmmm he takes her on his ship." Ashi refused to meet Jack's eyes while she explained the book and her cheeks were flushed.

"But if she were already aboard, why would he take her on the boat a second time?" He asked trying to understand the odd book. Ashi's mortification soon turned into unbridled laughter at what Jack had unknowingly said. "What? What did I say?" He did not understand but was glad to see her laugh.

"It was- um ahem a different manner in which he took her." She explained unable to meet his eyes. Understanding dawned on Jack, his face turned a deep red. Once she gained control of herself Ashi decided she'd tease the samurai a bit more. "You know my favorite one of these books is called the Rurouni and his Runaway Bride." His face was nearly as red as the apple beside him and Ashi could not find it more endearing. "I could let you borrow it while we wait for a fight for you. It's about this disgraced Samurai who's hired by this woman to…."

"No please Ashi, I plead mercy. I don't think I can take much more of this." His face felt far too flushed. Far too aware, in his opinion, of any skin contact with her.

"But you look so cute when you blush." She teased. "You know I never told you... I love you too. So very much."

Jack embraced her as they sat and chatted all night and into the next day never wanting to part for even a moment. They knew at any moment they could be separated once again. Be it fate, circumstance or tragedy, they knew it was only a matter of time before they would be pulled apart once more. So they enjoyed what little they had. What little they could get and what little they could keep. These lost children haunted by time, would have to settle with what time allowed them.


End file.
